Prayers of Confession

Introduction

Matthew 6:9–13 “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

We have been working our way through the Lord’s prayer as a guide to the different aspects of prayer. So far we have covered worship, intercession, supplication. Tonight we are going to be covering confession. The Lord’s prayer includes three elements of confession:

a request for forgiveness

a desire to treat others the way God treats us

a request to avoid temptations

Part of salvation is admitting you are a sinner before God facing His judgment. So we all think of confession as part of salvation. But should a believer confess his sins? I believe the very fact that Jesus is telling us to pray this way indicates that confession is part of the regular part of a believer’s life. We don’t need to be saved again nor will we lose our salvation when we sin, but we all know that sin hurts relationships. It needs to be dealt with if the relationship is going to thrive. As we start I want you to think on some other passages about confession just so you can see it is an important of our daily lives.

Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, And mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

What is Confession?

According to GotQuestions.org, confession is the admission of what we did and the agreement with God that our actions or words were wrong.

Confession is a broad topic. Biblically, we are to confess to God when we sin, we are to confess to those we have sinned against as well. You cannot sin against someone and then move on and act like it never happened. Until you confess that sin, you are not right with God. According to James 5, we are also to confess our sins to brothers and sisters who can be a help and accountability in our lives and pray for us. Some sins do not go away in an instant. Maybe you have fought with a sin for a long time. If you could have gotten victory over that sin on your own, you would have done so already. This is one of the reasons God has placed us in a community of believers. So confession may even be to people who weren’t involved as you seek help. But these are not the types of confession we are going to focus on tonight. We are focusing in on prayers of confession.

To do that I want us to take a look at one of the most well know passages of confession in the bible: Psalm 51 so we can glean what elements should exist in a person’s confession.

Elements of Confession

The background behind this chapter is the story of David and Bathsheba. Both David and Bethsheba had sinned before God. I believe there is evidence that Bathsheba was complicit in the sin of adultery. David sinned before God sexually, and then he murdered, lied and tried to cover up his sin. Later God would confront him through the prophet Nathan’s famous words, thou art the man. David would be broken over his sin and writes this prayer of confession.

Asking for mercy based on God’s character- Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” David knows he needs forgiveness and mercy, but he also knows God is not obligated to give it to him. God’s mercy is grace of God freely given. If we are going to find forgiveness, we must realize that God has to give it. David is confident that God will give it because he knows God. Notice he doesn’t remind himself of God’s justice because that would condemn him; he reminds himself of God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies. Sometimes we struggle with the belief that we are actually forgiven because we do not truly believe God is these things. We might say it with our lips and acknowledge it in our mind, but it isn’t in our hearts yet.

Admitting your sin- Psalm 51:3 “For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me.” The basis of confession is an agreement that sin is sin. All the excuses melt away, the rationalizations, the blame-shifting, the pride is stripped away. You cannot confess sin if you are not in agreement with God that it is wrong. In counseling, one step we often ask counselees to take is to write down all the consequences of our sin and how it has hurt God, ourselves and others. Once you have wrestled with the evil of your sin, you are ready to make a true confession.

Believing that the consequences you face are the just results of your sin- Psalm 51:4 “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.” Many people when they have done wrong will admit it was wrong, but then they get angry that someone won’t forgive them or their are consequences. In reality, they are sorry that they got caught, but not angry at their sin. True confession realizes you deserve whatever is coming your way because of your sin. It doesn’t try to hid from it or fight against. It realizes God is completely just.

A brokenness over sin Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” I am going to place this one out of order in the text just because it logically follows along with the other elements. Biblical confession is going to be based on godly sorrow. I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” and I would love to preach on this passage all on its own but I do not have the time tonight to do so. One of the graces that God uses to produce repentance in our lives is godly sorrow.There is a false form of sorry the text calls the sorrow of the world, but sorrow for sin is legitimate. You are guilty, and there should be shame when you are guilt until you clear yourself of the sin. God wants men and women who are broken over their sin. I would recommend a two part message series by Nancy Demoss Wolgemouth on brokenness or I have her book out on my shelf.

A desire for cleansing- Psalm 51:2 “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.” We see this also in vs 7,10. David wants to be cleansed of the guilt. To have a conscience clear of guilt. 1 Timothy 1:5 “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:” When we have sinned, a true believer is going to feel a weight of guilt on their lives. God will chasten them because He loves them. But when our sins are forgiven, we do not have to languish under the weight and shame of that sin any more. We can move forward knowing we are forgiven by God.

Embracing a restored relationship- Psalm 51:12 “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.” Also seen in verse 8. Sometimes we don’t want to confess because it is just too painful to think about and to deal with it.

It does not spoil your happiness to confess your sin. The unhappiness is in not making the confession.

Charles Spurgeon

There is hope in confession. You do not have to feel like David did in Psalm 51:9 “Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.” that God had hidden his face and rejected him. God restores us when we confess our sins to him. Embrace the joy and gladness. Rejoice in His forgiveness. Be upheld by His strength. It isn’t always easy to walk forward after confessing and dealing with sin. It is scary to have to go make things right, but move forward in the joy of your relationship with Him. Enjoy God. He will give you the strength you need.

7. A determination to do differently Psalm 51:13 “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Psalm 51:15 “O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.” David determines he is going to rescue as many others as he possibly can from going down the same path that he did. He will teach them and convert them when they have done wrong. He wants to help lead others back to the joy and gladness of a clean relationship with God. Then he moves forward in praise.

Can you see the progression of these points from admitting sin, sorrow for sin and acceptance of responsibility to hope, joy, forgiveness and praise? Confession is not merely saying “Lord forgive me for my anger”, but a wrestling with the guilt of sin in the search of joy.

Practice of Confession

There are probably many practical tips I could give, but I want to share just a few.

Ask the Lord to reveal anything in your heart that isn’t right- Psalm 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts:”

Seek godly sorrow over your sin 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Meditating on the destruction your sins has caused, what it says about your belief in God, the consequences that justly come from it will move our hearts in the direction of godly sorrow. Do a study on what godly sorrow from 2 Cor 7 looks like. There are 7 different characteristics of godly sorrow listed there. Study what they mean and how they would apply to your life.

Evaluate your life- In the context of the Lord’s supper, we are told in 1 Cor 11:28 to examine ourselves. I don’t think this practice should just be for the Lord’s supper. I use question cards during my prayer time to prompt an evaluation of my heart- I’ll give you one from this weeks prayer time for me. At the top it says pride and then underneath it “Am I puffed up and think a great deal of my position or attainments? Do I need to be recognized for my service?” You can come up with any set of questions that probe your specific struggles with pride.

Model the prayers of confession in the bible- Start with Psalm 51. But there are others confession Psalms, read them and then pray back the concepts in your own words back to God.

Respond to scripture reading in confession- As you read through a passage of scripture ask yourself Is there a sin to confess? Wrestle with that truth and talk to God about it.

After reading the story of Job, Mark Dever wrote out this confession for the church.

Lord, we confess this often is NOT our immediate response to suffering and loss in our lives. Instead of worship, we worry. Instead of grieving with hope, we gripe in unbelief. Instead of acknowledging Your “taking something away” from our lives and accepting it by faith as a part of Your perfect plan, we harbor bitterness toward you. We even begin to distrust you. We begin to say things like, “I’ve served You and I’ve sacrificed for You LORD, and this is what You give me in return?!” O Lord, have mercy on our self-righteous hearts. You have treated us better than our sins deserve. How often we forget that.

6. I challenge you not just to say forgive me for my anger and then move on. Spend time meditating on your sinfulness. How has this sin affected your life, and others? In what ways have you shown this sin in your life. How does God feel about this sin in your life and the impact on others? What about God would cause him to forgive you? What character trait or habit would God desire in your life instead?

Conclusion

If we are to seek God earnestly in prayer, we must take sin seriously. As we will see later sin is an impediment to a healthy relationship with God and hinders our prayers.